Asus Z87 Plus The Good The Bad The Ugly

[ProKoN]

Just Picked up this budget board today. The intention is upgrading my media server which has now taken on the HTPC role. Currently running an i3-3220 and asus p8p67 board.

 

Since I had a great overclocking 4670K I thought I would give this board a shot.

 

Price was right. Bought it as a clearance item from a local vendor, memory express. regular price was $179.99. Clearance price $75.00. No accessories included. Only real reason I chose this board was for the 8  internal sata ports and sli\cfx support. Most budget z87 boards only offer 6 ports.

 

Very good initial impression. Just running benchmarks (no stability testing yet)

 

I will update as I go. I have not tried ai suite or 4way optimization yet.

 

 

The Good

 

Great overclocking capability on par or better than the msi z87 mpower max. I only say better because this board does "per core " overclocking well.

 

Per core overclocking actually works! and works well!

 

cfx+sli support

 

The "direct key" works very well. this key (located above the 24 pin connector) takes you directly into the uefi upon next boot, but whats really amazing is it functions as a power button as well.

 

Onboard power button (no reset)

 

internal TB header

 

6x 4pin fan headers (including cpu)

 

Fairly quick post

 

Price. If you can find this board for less than $100.00 cdn I would jump on it.

 

 

 

The Bad

 

VRM cooling design looks cheap

 

rear i\o is fairly plain

 

8 internal usb 2.0 headers? ( would have liked more usb 2.0 on the rear i\o rather than 8 internal headers?)

 

non traditional sata port layout.

 

2 fan headers located below the cpu socket (im not a fan of this)

 

VGA out? seriously...?

 

Wont allow my cpu to post past 1.53V ( upon restart it gives a "cpu overvolt" error)

 

 

 

The Ugly

 

Brown PCB

 

Brown  and Beige PCI slots

 

Brown and Beige memory Dimms

 

Gold heatsinks

 

This is completely subject to my opinion. You may like the color scheme...thats kool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would never pay full retail for this board nor do I think its worth full retail, but at $100.00 or less you cant go wrong.
 

[legopc]

looks good but i dont think it is ugly this board would fit realy good in a black/brown and gold themed build 

[Saladin]

looks good but i dont think it is ugly this board would fit realy good in a black/brown and gold themed build 

Just add Noctua NF-F12's and you're good to go. Also @OP why on god green earth would you try to put 1.53 volts  through a CPU on air cooling (Intel recommended max is 1.35volts most overclockers recommend staying below 1.3)(the BIOS wont let you so you don't melt the board/chipset/mosfet) if you want to push the overclocks that much you need to go up to an ROG board (ie Maximus VI extreme).

[2Supra4U]

yea the board should be pretty decent for you.

 

 

I went with the z87 deluxe, great board so far.

 

If I had known that the maximus vi formula was coming out within two weeks of me buying it, I would have waited and got that.

 

but because, there wasn't much difference in terms of performance with z87 boards....I stuck with it. Why pay more (for a formula or extreme) when performance is negligible.

 

the colour is not the best but, I purposely got a non window r4 as I wasn't planning for it to be a showoff pc. Just a sleeper pc.

 

if you don't mind the colour, then its all good because the asus z87 board are a good buy, no matter what level.

[Leonard]

I agree with you @ProKoN. ASUS has freally messed you the colour scheme of their motherboards with this gold crap. The only one that loos good is the X79 Deluxe. Also i don't like the placement of the UEFI battery and i have found this to be a problem with most of ASUS's motherboards.

[Saladin]

if you don't mind the colour, then its all good because the asus z87 board are a good buy, no matter what level.

I used to be an MSI acolyte but these Asus boards are so well made its converted me (at least until someone comes out with a better option). Ive got a sabertooth z77 (love the look of the board), Asus UEFI is great, I actually use some of their software (fan expert mostly, my overclock is through the BIOS) and its given me no trouble.

[mgsstar]

Currently have the Z87-A board and it is currently really good. Wished that they had more fan headers so I will be able to control my fans. I don't really mind the colour scheme as long as overclocking and the features that I need are working. 

[Saladin]

Currently have the Z87-A board and it is currently really good. Wished that they had more fan headers so I will be able to control my fans. I don't really mind the colour scheme as long as overclocking and the features that I need are working. 

Here you go. http://www.frozencpu.com/products/20988/ele-1196/Swiftech_8-Way_PWM_Cable_Splitter_-_SATA_Power_8W-PWM-SPL-ST.html . All better now.

[mgsstar]

Here you go. http://www.frozencpu.com/products/20988/ele-1196/Swiftech_8-Way_PWM_Cable_Splitter_-_SATA_Power_8W-PWM-SPL-ST.html . All better now.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?tab=1&sku=87800

 

Going to live with the noise than spend $20 on a fan splitter.

[Saladin]

http://www.ncix.com/products/?tab=1&sku=87800

 

Going to live with the noise than spend $20 on a fan splitter.

The advantage of a splitter is that it allows you to use the CPU fan header (or the CPU optional fan header) for all your fans and then use the on board fan control software, you get very precise fan curves and a good noise control. Totally worth it in my mind, though your mileage may vary.

[ProKoN]

So after spending a few days with the brown beauty I should follow up on a few things on how Im in a love\ hate relationship with asus. @warmmilk

 

Im going to start with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. When I download and install either version 3.2 or 2.1 from the intel website. the program installs fine but simply does not work. does not give me any parameters to tune manually and if I use the stress test, it only stresses one core nor does it recognize any on-board sensors so it doesn't display temps at all or accurately.

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

 

However If I download XTU from MSI website it works! allows me to tune manually and the stress test works fine sensors etc. Only downside with this version is the xtu benchmark is not included.

 

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-MPOWER-MAX.html#download

 

@mgsstar what is your experience with XTU on the Z87 A

 

Next thing to mention is the bios. Its beautiful and  well laid out but its not efficient. I find myself having to make more inputs to do the same tasks then on my msi mpower board.

I also do not like how ASUS only gives you the option to use offset voltage when using adaptive voltage mode.  I prefer to define my voltage  as a whole not as an offset.

 

AI suite is a nice piece of software however it could be better. When you make a change in AI suite it does not execute and save your entry directly to the bios it relies on AI suite profiles to make those changes when windows boots every time..fatally flawed. 4 way optimization didnt work so great for me. i ran it and it gave me this result on my 4670K + NHD-14

 

47x

47x

46x

46x

 

1.275V

 

3900MHz ring bus

PIV- 1.7V

 

 

as soon as I tried to stress test this config my system crashed immediately. I just wanted to try it and see how it yielded. Im done with 4 way optimization.

 

currently stressing the 4670K at 4.7GHz across all cores @ 1.27v

ring bus at 4500MHz

PIV-2.07V

 

Last thing i wanted to mention was overclocking stability. I had this chip bone solid stable at 4.8 ghz @ 1.34V on the mpower max. when i defined the same values on the asus board its unstable.

4.8 GHz @1.34- 1.38V no go. I was hoping to get stable once again at 4.8GHz but it was going to require more voltage on this board. i decided to drop back to 4.7.

 

This board overclocks like a beast and actually benchmarked higher than the Z87 mpower max! If only it offered better overall overclocking stability.

[mgsstar]

 

@mgsstar what is your experience with XTU on the Z87 A

 

Worked for me before but doesn't work anymore because it says that there is another performance tuning application running and telling me to close it but in my task manager I don't see any monitoring programs. I only used the stability test part for fun but didn't do any overclocking with it yet because it seems very complicated lol and my system isn't stable yet (something is causing the system to blackout sometimes when gaming, might be psu but not sure)

 

EDIT: Works after I reinstalled it.

[ProKoN]

after thoroughly testing this board for a couple weeks paired with a 4670k I have really nothing positive to say about overclocking stability. I am most disappointed with not being able to achieve any real stability with regards to the ring bus. on the  Mpower max I was able to get this chip stable @ 4.8GHZ with a 4500MHz ring bus.

 

4.8GHz - not happening

 

4.7GHz-  stable with a 4000MHz ring bus

 

4.6GHz- stable but still looking for best ring bus results. worked my way down from 4600MHZ ring bus now at 4300MHz

 

If your looking for overclocking stability I certainly can NOT recommend this board especially at the full retail price of $179.00

 

Im gonna put this rig up against a 8350 later today

[Saladin]

after thoroughly testing this board for a couple weeks paired with a 4670k I have really nothing positive to say about overclocking stability. I am most disappointed with not being able to achieve any real stability with regards to the ring bus. on the  Mpower max I was able to get this chip stable @ 4.8GHZ with a 4500MHz ring bus.

 

4.8GHz - not happening

 

4.7GHz-  stable with a 4000MHz ring bus

 

4.6GHz- stable but still looking for best ring bus results. worked my way down from 4600MHZ ring bus now at 4300MHz

 

If your looking for overclocking stability I certainly can NOT recommend this board especially at the full retail price of $179.00

 

Im gonna put this rig up against a 8350 later today

The issue is less to do with the board than the CPU in all likelihood, Haswell chips are poor overclockers generally speaking. They make it up by being faster and more efficient clock for clock. Remember the clock speed of the chip does not tell you how well it actually performs only rate at which it perform its tasks, so a clock speed is really only useful in comparing chips of the same architecture, it is of little use in comparing between architectures as in comparing AMD and Intel or even between generations of Intel chips. In general clock for clock Intel is faster than AMD. Getting 4.6-4.7 stable on a Haswell chip is pretty good even having the chip underwater.

[ProKoN]

The issue is less to do with the board than the CPU in all likelihood, Haswell chips are poor overclockers generally speaking.

 I would have to disagree on this statement

 

after having the opportunity to  overclock 3 Haswell chips on two different Z87 boards, this is completely based on my actual experience..nothing hypothetical here all stable results. none of the chips i get are by any means cherry picked, i get whatever comes off the shelf like everyone else.. every haswell chip i have got can hit 4.7-4.8GHz stable under H20. Nothing poor about those results.

 

having a good stable board for overclocking will effect your results. I would not call the asus z87 plus a good stable overclocking board. sorry

 

please read the second post of this thread for validation

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/41234-intel-haswell-4670k-4770k-overclocking-guide/

 

 

 

 

My biggest reason for wanting to compare the 4670K and 8350 are because they similar in price (yes i know the 8350 tends to be slightly cheaper). on the amd side i will be testing a 990fx-ud5

 

what im more interested in seeing is the difference between amd vs intel chipsets

 

intel has been making chipsets alot longer than amd and in my opinion intel chipsets are better, however i have not tried an amd chipset in some time so i want to compare the overall chipset performance of the two. what im most interested to see is how effective each manufacture has been at sata3 and usb3 implementations. also i would like to see how each chipset might differ from lan or wifi network connectivity\productivity.

[Saladin]

 I would have to disagree on this statement

 

after having the opportunity to  overclock 3 Haswell chips on two different Z87 boards, this is completely based on my actual experience..nothing hypothetical here all stable results. none of the chips i get are by any means cherry picked, i get whatever comes off the shelf like everyone else.. every haswell chip i have got can hit 4.7-4.8GHz stable under H20. Nothing poor about those results.

 

having a good stable board for overclocking will effect your results. I would not call the asus z87 plus a good stable overclocking board. sorry

 

please read the second post of this thread for validation

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/41234-intel-haswell-4670k-4770k-overclocking-guide/

 

 

 

 

My biggest reason for wanting to compare the 4670K and 8350 are because they similar in price (yes i know the 8350 tends to be slightly cheaper). on the amd side i will be testing a 990fx-ud5

 

what im more interested in seeing is the difference between amd vs intel chipsets

 

intel has been making chipsets alot longer than amd and in my opinion intel chipsets are better, however i have not tried an amd chipset in some time so i want to compare the overall chipset performance of the two. what im most interested to see is how effective each manufacture has been at sata3 and usb3 implementations. also i would like to see how each chipset might differ from lan or wifi network connectivity\productivity.

Its impressive that you have been able to get 4.7-4.8 on Haswell that is considered fairly high. Do you mind me asking what voltages you are using to achieve those overclocks. In general Asus tends to have the best power delivery of the major manufacturers (its their biggest selling point, other than on-board audio, which is not much of a selling point in my opinion). I am well aware of how to overclock a CPU from the BIOS (3570k 4.4 GHz @1.24v) as well as stability test it. I am sorry you have had a bad experience with Asus boards (I have had a very good experience with them after a few horrible MSI boards). I'm not fanboying over Asus, I'm just a little surprised by your experience with their power delivery given my own experience and their focus on that very aspect.

[ProKoN]

Its impressive that you have been able to get 4.7-4.8 on Haswell that is considered fairly high. Do you mind me asking what voltages you are using to achieve those overclocks. In general Asus tends to have the best power delivery of the major manufacturers (its their biggest selling point, other than on-board audio, which is not much of a selling point in my opinion). I am well aware of how to overclock a CPU from the BIOS (3570k 4.4 GHz @1.24v) as well as stability test it. I am sorry you have had a bad experience with Asus boards (I have had a very good experience with them after a few horrible MSI boards). I'm not fanboying over Asus, I'm just a little surprised by your experience with their power delivery given my own experience and their focus on that very aspect.

 

 

at the $180.00 pricepoint asus is not looking soo good in my eyes. the z87 Pro is prolly where your starting to get decent power delivery in terms of overclocking stability. almost a tell tale sign is the VRM heatsink design.

 

when JJ can say there not much difference in the z87A vs the maximus hero\formula\extreme in terms of overclockability, I beg to differ. Im sure the higher end boards provide better power delivery and overall stability.

 

Im kinda disappointed with not getting good overclocking stability like I get on the z87 mpower max. I was hoping the cheaper boards would perform just as well.

 

 

 

msi mpower max -4670k 4.8GHz @ 1.34v   

 

 

asus z87-plus- 4670k-4.8Ghz not possible to get stable on this board with this chip, regardless of voltage.

                                   4.7GHz@ 1.29v 

                                   4.6GHz@ 1.25v

[chos5555]

I thinl it looks nice.